A conversation with Dennis
Automatic audio transcript; may contain errors.

[0:00] My name is Dennis Beckwith. I'm here in Panama as part of the group that came with Healing

[0:07] Fund and I actually learned about this through my brother who has come for several years.

[0:13] Most of this group came out of the Seattle area by myself and from California. But when

[0:19] I heard about the connection to Rotary I was kind of pleased. I'm a recent Rotarian myself

[0:25] about a year and a half, two years, and I'm actually out of a club in Glendora, California,

[0:30] and it's been a long, long-serving club that has involved many, many things, both locally

[0:35] and internationally, of course, through Rotary International.

[0:40] And I got excited about it, shared about it with my club, and they were pleased to

[0:45] hear that connection.

[0:46] I'll be president actually, president-elect, not this year, but next year at my club.

[0:50] So it was just an amazing experience.

[0:53] I didn't really know what to expect.

[0:54] The water project part of it was something pretty new to me.

[0:58] I heard a little bit about it, but the catchment process

[1:00] is actually quite simple.

[1:02] Simple, it's beautifully simple, and yet,

[1:06] because things are difficult to get into Panama

[1:09] and out and travel across water into these villages,

[1:13] there's still quite a bit that's

[1:14] involved in getting the infrastructure there,

[1:18] getting the tanks there, getting the components there,

[1:21] having all these kits made up, having kits prepared for them so that they can

[1:26] maintain these systems. But once the system is up it's really an amazingly

[1:31] simple system that works really well and it's it was really fun to be part of

[1:37] that team that's this team that's been doing it for a number of years and has

[1:42] had an impact, seen the impact already on what they're doing and how you've

[1:46] continued to improve the process, get better at it, get more organized with

[1:51] with it and it was fun to be part of it.

[1:54] When they have a roof that has the corrugated metal,

[1:56] it creates a nice flush edge.

[1:59] So by simply taking the PVC pipe,

[2:02] placing along the edge of that metal rim,

[2:06] the water just naturally runs down those channels

[2:08] into that pipe.

[2:10] Pipe is led off the edge of the roof

[2:12] like a downspout on many of our homes

[2:14] into some type of a tank that collects it.

[2:18] Now, if we can get a larger tank to them, that obviously allows them to save much, much more

[2:23] water, put a tap on it, and then others besides just that home or just that school can have

[2:30] access to that clean water, because it does rain a lot there.

[2:35] The rain is heavy, I should say, from experience when it does come.

[2:39] So it's a great system.

[2:41] It's not hard to do.

[2:43] It's kind of cool to see.

[2:44] and here when we went into a village how you said oh yes there and there and

[2:48] there we did those you know two three four five seven whatever years ago I know

[2:53] from other experiences traveling around the world and other places that water

[2:57] is such a such a huge huge issue for folks people that live in in these

[3:03] kinds of places where where they just don't have access to good clean water

[3:06] and of course as we all know poor water leads to poor health and leads to

[3:10] many, many, many other systemic issues.

[3:13] So it's such a key core component

[3:15] to people who are in these kind of situations.